Shakespeare – Arthur Hofn

How Far Can We Go?

Fiction is, by its very nature, made up. That means writers of stories have to convince their reader that whilst in their world what they are reading can have believably happened. This might seem easy, in theory, when dealing with the domestic; if the novel is about a couple who fall in love then (don’t call me a cynic) as this happens all the time, possibly it’s happened for the reader, then it’s conceivable some made up people have done the same thing.

However for authors of science-fiction it can take on an extra challenge. From whole worlds having to be created into which the reader has to submerse themselves, to twisting our everyday experiences into something most of us would find unbelievable. Yet not only does the reader have to accept this, so do the characters who need to be rounded and accessible and have a good reason why they would give countenance to something we would judge them for if we knew that person in normal circumstances; of course in the novel they would be right to do so and we would most probably be eaten by Chapter Five.

Even though the fictional world and those that populate it are made up, there are still rules that have to be abided by. For an author to break those rules, even if they created them themselves, they need a good reason and a method which does not cause the reader to step out of that world. This has to be played very carefully when adding twists to the plot. Twists have to not be seen coming, but in hindsight make perfect sense, a hard trick to pull off; at best the new direction of the story should be built in first and the previous deceptions in the plot thought up later.

Earlier I said that in theory stories that deal with everyday situations are easier to convince the reader to accept, but this is only in theory. Compare two examples:

In many of Shakespeare’s plays characters meet each other briefly and fall instantly in love, hopelessly devoted to each other they are then prepared to go to extreme lengths to get or stay together. Whilst “the possibility of love at first sight” is another blog in itself and totally outside of the scope of this website, on the whole Shakespeare manages to get his audience to go with it. It propels the plot forwards and the actors often do a lot of work to convince us this is so. I wonder if Shakespeare’s name can carry the weight for us to allow him to get away with things we’d be harsher on with other writers? He certainly proved he knew what he was doing.

“The very instant I saw you, did
My heart fly to your service; there resides
To make me slave to it.”
― William Shakespeare, The Tempest

Compare that, and I’m sorry to lower the tone of this a little, with a plot point from a famous worldwide TV programme, in which after many years of being on air two characters who were just, let’s say, Friends, decided to become a couple. It didn’t work out in the programme and one of them went on to fall in love with the person she was created to be in a couple with (it ended years ago, get over the spoiler). But at the time few believed this new relationship, still to this day it’s become a joke of bad plotting.

NOTE: I just want to point out I fully know that my example is not in keeping with higher literary standards I set for this blog, neither am I much of a fan of said TV programme, but it was the best example I could think of. Please don’t judge me, laughing emoji (oh dear I’ve even introduced emojis now).

Back in the world of science-fiction lots of really strange ideas have to be sold carefully because they are so different from the reality. Often we like this because we want to step away from the ongoing normality that is this world, that makes sense, but it’s not an excuse for the writer to be lazy or push things too far.

How about a story where a large number of women unknowingly fall pregnant by xenogenesis and give birth to aliens who begin to have mind control over everyone? It’s a bit of a far fetched idea, but The Midwich Cuckoos by John Wyndham is a deservedly classic and well loved novel. The reason for this is the way Wyndham tells the story, not just because he uses the first person but his characters act and react as if they really were in a small terribly English village of the 1950s. With so much that we know and trust already there, when use of subtle but clear explanations by Wyndham describe the strange we are just as willing to go with it.

“Mrs Brant had gone into Mrs Welt’s shop one morning to find her engaged in jabbing a pin into herself again and again, and weeping as she did it. This had not seemed good to Mrs Brant, so she had dragged her off to see Willers. He gave Mrs Welt some kind of sedative, and when she felt better she had explained that in changing the baby’s napkin she had pricked him with a pin. Whereupon, by her account, the baby had just looked steadily at her with its golden eyes, and made her start jabbing the pin into herself.”
― John Wyndham, The Midwich Cuckoos

You might argue that because it’s science-fiction we are more open to unusual ideas, but does that mean we can just accept anything? I’m a big Doctor Who fan and over the years that programme has sold us the most absurd concepts, but is there a limit? In one episode first shown in 2014 we were asked to believe that the moon turned out to be an egg of a giant space creature. The episode was set in the future and at the end it hatched and immediately the new creature laid a new moon for us (I don’t care about spoilers here, the episode is terrible and again it’s been 10 years, almost). Elsewhere other creatures were said to be single celled organisms that couldn’t possibly be. At the time there was much derision over this with the makers trying to play the whole thing down claiming because it was science-fiction it didn’t have to be scientifically accurate. Whilst this is technically true, it still needs to have some credibility.

I whole heartedly agree this was an idea that should never have got passed the first writer’s meeting, but why do we find it so ridiculous? Especially compared to other things we maybe thought were clever? In 2005 it turned out the London Eye was a large alien transmitter, but we bought that one. So why is the moon as an egg too far? Like most things in writing I guess it’s a case by case issue. The context needs to be taken into consideration, can you do more silly things in a one off novel than in an ongoing series? It doesn’t seem a good enough explanation. Maybe some ideas just can’t be sold, no matter how hard you try. There’s a good lesson there.

Buy The Midwich Cuckoos – by John Wyndham

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I completely get why some may be put off, but here is why I think you should give it a go.

Every year I go and see at least one play by Shakespeare at the Globe. I love Shakespeare and have (in one form or another) seen all of his plays – lets not get into the cannon discussion but I include The Two Noble Kinsman. If you’ve never been and are in London (at a time when viruses are not playing havoc with society) I’d highly recommend an evening at The Globe Theatre. Tickets are very reasonably priced especially if you are standing. Personally I always book well in advance and get a seated ticket, you’re not in the main crowd for the fun and danger of being picked on by the actors, but at least you can sit down and as some of the plays can be long it’s worth the extra money.

It’s all academic at the moment anyway as they have, reasonably and understandably, currently shut their doors to the public until further notice. 2020 will be a gap in my unbroken record of many years where I have seen a play there at least once (it’s not the only thing that I have an annual tradition of that will be missing this year). It didn’t have to be because as well as the outdoor theatre for summer performances there is the very cool Sam Wanamaker Playhouse, an indoor intimate theatre for telling tales in the winter season, and I could have gone in January to see something.

However that doesn’t mean we can’t enjoy Shakespeare, there is the Globe Player (https://globeplayer.tv/) where you can stream from a catalogue of previous performances, it’s well worth it! Other theatre groups and performances are available and also worth looking out for, the RSC have teamed up with companies hosting streamed plays for example and there are some excellent options.

The suggestion of Shakespeare can turn people off, maybe they had to wade through it at school, or they are put off by the old language. I fully get that this can be overwhelming but I would still recommend you to watch at least one play to try it out. I say watch because for many who read it they find it hard to follow, this is because it’s not supposed to be read, it’s a play, it’s supposed to be watched. There is joy in reading the texts but this is not how William intended the public to access his work (yes I did just refer to him by his first name!). The scripts were meant for the actors so they could perform it.

The next question then is which play to see? There are around thirty-nine of them so just taking one at random can be fun, but as some are heavier going than others if you start with one that isn’t quite your thing you might be put off. Of course it all comes down to what you like. A few years ago the BBC had a success with the English Historical plays, broadcasting them as films in two cycles of three parts. Using well known actors these, although long, were very watchable and again if you are able to see them somehow you really should.

Going under the umbrella title of The Hollow Crown the second cycle (about the Wars of the Roses) is a great entry point, the last of the three films is an adaption of Richard III with Benedict Cumberbatch in the title role, this is one of my favourite plays anyway but this adaption still had me on the edge of my seat. If you’re thinking you are not a fan of history, I’d say although this is history (with a lot of poetic licence) it’s as compulsive viewing as many a period drama.

“Now is the winter of our discontent
Made glorious summer by this sun of York;
And all the clouds that lour’d upon our house
In the deep bosom of the ocean buried.”
― William Shakespeare, Richard III

If that is still sounding a little hard going some of the Comedies are shorter and lighter work. Personally two of my favourites are Love’s Labours Lost –four students vow to give up seeking women so they can focus on study… then they meet the new neighbours and that vow suddenly seems hard work – the Globe version on their Player had me keep having to pause it as I laughed so much at various points, and The Comedy of Errors – deliberately confusing cases of mistaken identity as two sets of twins (who were separated at birth) all happen to end up in the same city at the same time but don’t know it… and much hilarity ensues. The Comedy of Errors is his shortest play; to put that in context Hamlet (one of the most well known plays) is his longest at over twice the length!

“They have been at a great feast of languages, and stolen the scraps.”
― William Shakespeare, Love’s Labour’s Lost

Although there is a lot of concepts about exactly what a Shakespeare play is, when you investigate you can see how diverse they are. The old idea of putting them all in one of the three categories of Comedy, Tragedy, and Historical doesn’t really work as many of the plays blur those lines. Earlier I said there are around thirty-nine plays, the reason there isn’t an exact number is because there is discussion over what counts as a Shakespeare play; some were co-written, for others he was part of a team of writers and may have only contributed a little and there are cases where for a couple of plays it’s not exactly certain how much involvement he did have. To be honest if you are just wanting to be entertained I don’t think that’s something worth worrying about, most of the obvious ones are by him so there is no conspiracy here, something I’ll go on to discuss in the second part of this blog.

At the end of day the idea that Shakespeare is boring, I believe, is because many were forced to read the dry texts at school and then analysis them. This is, as I said, not what was intended when they were written. To enjoy Shakespeare you need to watch it live, we can’t really do it that at the moment but I highly recommend tracking down at least one of his plays online, you may discover it’s a lot more entertaining than you realised.

Buy The Complete Works Of William Shakespeare
Watch Shakespeare’s Plays